Streamliners - Land-Speed Racing's Fastest Class

What’s the best way to go fast? If you ask around at the Bonneville land-speed races, you’ll get as many different answers as there are grains of salt beneath the wheels of a push truck. Land-speed racing is one of the most experimental forms of motorsports on Earth, and although many of the classes put limits on how far competitors can experiment with body mods or engine changes, there’s one group unburdened by production profiles or pesky stock wheel placement: the Streamliners. The only things constraining the builders and drivers of the Streamliner classes are their own imaginations. Watch these space pods fly across the five-mile course on the Bonneville Salt Flats in competition that considers 240 mph “a shakedown pass”, and you’ll wonder if they even follow the laws of physics. We spent seven days at Bonneville’s Speed Week squinting across the salt flats to see what’s beneath these bullet-bodies, and what’s inside the heads and hearts of the men and women who drive them.

The definition of a Streamliner has changed as various sanctioning bodies have formed and organized top -speed racing meets. Streamliners were first specifically classed by the SCTA (organizers of land-speed racing at Bonneville, El Mirage, and Muroc dry lakes) in 1939 and included cars that didn’t fit in the stock or modified roadster classes due to body modifications. Belly tanks showed up in 1946, moving the shape of the cars in the class one step closer to the spaceships that they are today. The first enclosed-wheel Streamliners appeared in 1949 and the race organizers moved the open-wheel belly tankers to the Lakester class. Today, a Streamliner must be a non-production body and have at least two wheels covered by the fairing. Other than that, it’s pretty much wide open on the rules, which is what the racers in this class like about it.

There are 18 engine classes legal for Streamliners, and that’s not counting additional classes for turbine engines and electric motors. If you include the forced induction and fuel options, that makes a lot of possible combinations. Stroll through the pits, and you’re likely to see at least one powerplant that surprises you. From nitro-burning bike engines to multiple big-blocks, choosing an engine is easy. The hard part comes when it’s time to put that power to the salt.

23/42Racing at Bonneville can be challenging. Rick Pearson, the English driver of the Scottish Flower of Scotland Streamliner described Bonneville as “a hateful, hateful place.” Granted, his team had been having a hard week. Crew Chief Derek Palmer said they spent much of their time repairing corroded and damaged components from shipping their car overseas. “It looked like it had been on the deck of a submarine,” he said.

“I’ve been racing for 30 years, always in Blown Fuel. I raced once on gas, never again. You’re stuck with whatever it runs. With nitro, you can keep adding horsepower till it blows the pistons out.” — Mark Lingua, No. 1167

27/42Diesel Streamliners have their own classes, and the current SCTA AA/DS record is more than 300 mph.

“Would you try to hammer a nail in backward?” — Jack Costella, on the idea of small frontal area

31/42The early Streamliners were low and wide, designed more by a builder’s gut sense as to the behavior of air rather than any aero testing. The races themselves were the test, and through successes and failures, Streamliners developed into the long, narrow designs we see today. The re-created City of Burbank shows the ’50s streamlining aesthetic.

Factoids

In 1949, SCTA held the first Speed Week on the Bonneville Salt Flats. However, many famous top-speed and endurance runs occurred on the salt flats before this, including those by Ab Jenkins, John Cobb, and Sir Malcom Campbell.

35/42Racing at Bonneville is a very personal experience. You are racing against time. Some drivers, like Poteet, are racing against their own records, while others, like Dave Brant, have a specific goal—in this case, claiming a 200 MPH Club red hat for the first time. You don’t get a hat just for running more than 200 mph; you have to set a record or beat the Club minimum. Dave might also have the record for most team members named Dave Brant, from left to right, there’s three Daves, and one guy named John.

39/42Speed Demon won the HOT ROD Top Time Trophy for the fifth year, but hit some stumbling blocks along the way, including a fire on the top end that required completely disassembling the back half of the car to clean and repair the damage. The best term for Speed Demon’s driver George Poteet would be “unflappable.” When we asked him about the fire, he said, “Oh, it didn’t really catch until I’d already slowed down.” He ran 410 mph on that pass.

What Makes “Good” Salt?

At any race, you’ll hear participants complaining about the track, and the salt flats have been damaged by mining operations (learn more at SaveThe Salt.org) but even under the best of conditions Bonneville’s course will change radically from year to year, and even from day to day. Good salt is damp enough to be firmly packed but dry enough to hold together as the cars pass over. The course gets rutted as the day goes on, which is why you’ll usually see the fast passes made in the morning.